Wednesday, February 17, 2010

To be fair, this article could just as easily have been called “Waking a Zombie World”. While various people and governments point to the USA as the bad actor in this mess, in fact it has taken dozens of nations to form this conga line to hell and the rest of the world is far from blameless. Nor is America the sole residence of the world’s zombie population. However, since this writer and much of the ZH readership reside in American, we will assume an American (ego) centric focus. My apologies for the delay in posting this article which I had promised some time ago. In my defense, there are hundreds of thick and dusty books on this subject at the local library, proof that it’s not very easy to condense this complex subject into a 10 minute read. In fact, it’s impossible to do so and not even worth trying. While you can break visible light down to its primary colors, it’s actually composed of millions. The same applies to this subject. What I finally decided to do was break it down into separate postings so that the reader could find the courage and stamina to actually read it. Even with the division, be forewarned that this first posting is still a long read.

This article is an effort to understand what’s really going on, why Americans (and the rest of the world) appear to be frozen in place, seemingly helpless and hopeless in the face of incredible corruption and thieving. A quick review of history shows us this isn’t the first time it has happened, though it may be the biggest since the 1930’s. In fact, these types of disasters seem to occur regularly, following a well worn script to its inevitable conclusion. The bad guys escape with the loot while the general population looks on, tails between the legs, hands in pockets and eyes cast down, impotent to the end. Why do we allow ourselves to be used and abused like this? Why are we spectators to our own destruction? While the human condition can’t always be quantified, it can be understood to some extent, but only if we’re willing to peer into some extremely uncomfortable places. My ultimate goal in writing this “End of Empire” series is to promote reflection and understanding. Significant and lasting political and social change will not occur until we elevate our understanding and awareness far above where it is today. I most definitely don’t have all the answers and anyone who claims they do is smoking the good stuff and should share their stash with this formerly long haired hippie. Pass the bong dude.

In this article, I’ll describe how I see myself, the world and the people who live in it. By doing so, the reader will be looking over my shoulder at the workings of the human psyche, or at least my interpretation of the psyche. What you will not find is the consensus view on this subject. For that, all you need do is pop open a standard psychology 101 text book and dive in. The reason I leave the beaten path is simple. The really interesting ideas are usually found way out on the fringe and deep in the weeds. That’s not to say you can’t find “truth” or accurate knowledge within the consensus, just that cutting edge ideas and concepts aren’t tolerated well among the establishment. In my opinion, the established leaders rarely go into areas that aren’t well traveled and seldom stray from their own fields of expertise. Ironically, in a discipline that devotes much ink to the discussion of the ego, the principal players’ egos prevent little more than incremental forward progress. When you’re sipping from government and corporate grants, you don’t often make waves.

Now for the fine print disclaimer. My understanding is ever changing and evolving and I reserve the right to change my opinion before I finish this sentence or this series. The one constant thing in life is change. All I ask of the reader is to read this in its entirety and in the order written. When mucking around in the bushes, it’s very easy to take things out of context when you don’t read the context. The subject is so involved and complex that each paragraph could be expended into 8 more and still not be complete. I ask the reader to consider that I just might have left some things out of this article in the interest of brevity and not because I’m clueless.

Established “facts” are often facts the consensus believes can be or has been proven, which in the field of psychology is usually what the majority believes to be fact. Circular logic is often accepted by the consensus because it substantiates and validates the consensus. We see this in religion, politics, science, finance, in every human behavior. Because of this, it’s impossible to understand ourselves and our world without a fundamental knowledge of psychology and philosophy and the willingness to break the boundaries of accepted thought and leave the pack. From my point of view, only when I began to color (way) outside the lines did I begin to pull together seemingly unconnected ideas and concepts into a bigger, more coherent picture. Psychology helps me understand why we do what we do and philosophy forces me (at least temporarily) to abandon any notions of right or wrong, good and bad, better or worse and see life as it really is. When thinking philosophically, I must leave my biases and prejudices at the door. I use these two tools, along with others, to gain (and hopefully maintain) perspective.

Since I’m not a classically trained psychologist with a consensus belief system, I’m at liberty to explore multiple ideas and concepts that aren’t constrained by a formal ideology or professional field of expertise. From my point of view, I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Instead of herding everything I learn into rigid categories for emotional and intellectual comfort, I try to follow the rabbit wherever it goes. After decades of trying to do things “my way or the highway” I’ve learned the hard way it’s best to navigate life with an open mind and a loosely held belief system, in the same manner one might gently cradle a delicate butterfly rather than desperately clutch a huge sack of potatoes. By doing so, when something doesn’t fit my worldview or belief system, I simply let go and let it mold itself into any shape that’s required to fit the new information. Contrary to what one might think, this doesn’t result in radical changes but rather subtle movements. The key is mental and emotional flexibility and with lots of practice and a healthy dose of courage, it can be as easy as that.

While this process might sound nonsensical, impossible even (“you have to believe something” I’ve been told) it’s actually very easy and quite liberating once you exercise it on a regular basis. Very young children do it every day, until it’s finally conditioned out of them using an extremely effective program of dogmatic repetition and indoctrination administered by our state sponsored training institutions known as the public and private school system. For those children who require additional training, there are 4 more years of intensive focus available for a substantial additional charge. Finally, in those tragic cases where a few unfortunate children refuse to absorb their conditioning, graduate school is offered. Quite frankly, it’s their last and only hope and it’s usually financed with huge loans and paid back in monthly installments, assuming they finally secure gainful employment once released onto an unsuspecting and vulnerable world. These adult children are hopelessly institutionalized and those who survive this level of indoctrination have historically done the most damage to society.

All kidding aside (well, actually I wasn’t kidding) the training I just described is not known to produce an open mind and a flexible belief system. As I continue to work on reversing and repairing a lifetime of damage to my own psyche and spirit, the perspective gained from this flexibility allows me to forcibly move my dominate ego to the back of the bus and away from the controls. I say forcibly because the ego is the original and ultimate control freak, a crisis manger that knows it all and won’t willingly release command. The ego will not go quietly into the night. By corralling the egoic mind, it enables my intellect and awareness to explore areas my ego would normally shield from me. It took me the longest time to realize that what I thought was “me”, my “self”, my conscious mind talking and thinking was often and sometimes exclusively my ego, which is a very constrained and purposely narrow slice of my full consciousness. In essence, I discovered that my ego, that constant companion I’d always assumed was “me”, wasn’t actually “me”. Worse yet, I realized my ego lied to me. As a matter of fact, my ego lied to me all the time, in a very successful attempt to shield me from myself and the world around me.

It appears I really am wearing rose colored glasses, placed there by an hyper vigilant ego perfectly adapted to an environment made dangerous by lions, tigers and bears (oh my) but mostly useless and quite self destructive in a modern world of townhouses and tea parties. While the ego is wonderfully capable of piloting the ship through dangerous shoals and shark infested waters, it is not well suited to the everyday mundane task of cruise ship captain. It is time to extract the (ego) maniac from the pilot house and put him in charge of the bilge pumps. However, you don’t want to remove the ego completely because you need it in a pinch. While the ego will scream and holler at first, (usually manifested in fear and anxiety) it really isn’t comfortable handling delicate cruise ship piloting duties 24/7. Once you negotiate a truce with your ego by assuring your ego you need it during crisis situations, the ego will stay busy rebuilding the bilge pumps and manning the life boats, where it really is much happier. You really don’t want the antisocial and paranoid head of security running the public relations department all the time.

Don’t believe me? Think this is silly? Well, you might be correct, but consider the following. Have you ever experienced a situation where you’re talking to someone, carrying on a somewhat heated conversation (meaning your ego is front and center) and yet at the same time you mentally float off and find yourself watching yourself as you argue with the person? Or something happens and you react instinctively, yet at the same time and in the back of your mind, you’re asking yourself why you’re doing or saying this or that? I’m talking about real time here, not after the fact. Sort of like watching yourself while also being in the “here and now”. This actually happens to many people but rarely do they talk about it publically, for fear of being branded crazy or weird. I suggest that if you’ve never experienced this, it might be because you’ve never tried or you’re more egocentric than some (that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just is what it is) and you might benefit from being aware of it.

To go a little further with this idea (and deeper into the weeds) as I’ve learned to control my dreams (I submit that dreaming is simply a different aspect of consciousness) there are times when I’m in my dream (seeing through my dream eyes in my dream body so to speak) while also watching myself in my dream, in exactly the same manner as described above. But I’ve also experienced (more accurately controlled) the third perspective while dreaming, moving in and out of my dream body at will, disembodied from myself, while at the same time watching me watch my ego in the dream. There are other perspectives as well (out of your dream body and into someone else’s dream body, which I find exhilarating) but I don’t wish to scare off the reader too soon.

I see all this as simply different perspectives or dimensions of the same consciousness. I humorously call this dream state the ultimate expression of me, myself and I (and that guy). While some people get physically and emotionally upset when I discuss this (yes, some people become quite threatened by things like this) if science can rationally discuss string and membrane theory, quantum mechanics and 11 dimensions, I can talk about expanded consciousness. For those readers experiencing a queasy stomach right about now, wondering who this lunatic is, you’re welcome to exit stage right if you like. For those readers who regularly read my comments on ZH, I’ll quote my all time favorite line from the movie “Starman”. “You wanted crazy, you got crazy.” :>)

Circling back, this heightened awareness has many different names in other cultures and (not surprisingly) it’s that place or level one wishes to reach during meditation, Yoga or intense concentration. Many “creative” and “religious” people have reported reaching a heightened state of awareness during moments of greatest inspiration and concentration. (I’ll touch the “religious” third rail in my next article.) This heightened awareness can only be reached by taking the ego out of the driver’s seat and engaging yourself. You, or more accurately your consciousness, can be found in this area of higher awareness, where your true creativity and knowledge is located. This is where you find the more fully formed you, not the everyday ego we all assume is us, which is what is exposed to the world when we’re on automatic pilot. This higher awareness is where your gut instinct resides, the place where problems are sorted out when you “sleep on it”, where you put something in the back of your mind for processing. If you think about it, there are dozens of popular cliché’s we use every day that actually describe a higher level of consciousness. While we kind of, maybe, sort of, accept this as possible, we rarely spend any time attempting to engage this area at will and use this power to our benefit.

Just think, all those wasted years in my late teens and early 20’s taking hallucinogenic drugs and looking for me when I was actually right here all the time. :>) You really can have lots of fun with this if you don’t take yourself too seriously and regularly tickle the funny bone. (I’ll cover more thoroughly the “hallucinogenic drugs” third rail next time.) My little laugh at my own expense actually highlights that most basic and fundamental aspect of being human, the longing or yearning for “meaning” that humans have described for thousands of years. Think of the tens of thousands of books, poems and songs written over the ages describing the search for the meaning and purpose of life. As you might suspect, I have some ideas on the subject but not here, not now. By the way, Microsoft’s “Word” spell check doesn’t like this article. Too many me, myself and I’s (which Word as king narcissist automatically corrects to read “me, me, me”) has Bill Gates’ crowning achievement all worked up.

Anyway, the phenomenon of watching your ego while awake and aware is sometimes called perspective but also has many other names and explanations. The real question is how are you able to do this if “you” are your ego and your ego is “you”? How can you be “you” and also be watching yourself at the same time? It’s almost as if you’re of two minds as the saying goes. In my opinion, the ego is a narrow slice of and a distinct part of your total consciousness (but a part of it none-the-less) something I call my basic self, where my mental reflexes lay, the emotional me, the crisis manager, my reptilian brain for lack of a better term. You can actually train yourself to step back and watch your ego at will, though it can be more difficult during times of stress, when the dominate ego asserts it’s primacy over your consciousness. Interestingly, during deep concentration or during meditation, when I’ve moved the ego into the background and my consciousness forward, I sense there are additional levels of awareness. It’s my understanding that it’s possible for the more highly developed conscious being (shamans, Dali Lama, etc) to “go” much further than I can even conceive of. This is a rabbit hole that’s very deep, endless even, and while I’ll never fully explore it in my lifetime, it’ll be loads of fun trying.

Once you begin to practice this, you find it’s much easier to subvert your ego because you no longer identify yourself with the ego. “You” are not your ego and your ego is not “you”. “You” are the master, the overseer, the conscious being and your ego is your servant, in the same manner your arm is a part of you but not “you”. (Unless of course you’re Peter Seller’s arm in “Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” a wonderfully powerful examination of global insanity created and accepted by the consensus reality.) Interestingly, it appears that for the last six thousand years, the ego has gained more and more control over the human psyche; to the point where today it remains dominate nearly all the time. In fact, there is growing evidence that ancient man didn’t “think” or experience reality in the same way we do today. But since we know of nothing else, of no other way to be, we assume this is normal and natural. My studies indicate it hasn’t always been normal for the ego to be primary, front and center, crowding out our greater awareness, pushing it into the background. (I’ll expand on this in the next article.)

Of course, at times you do want a dominate ego, such as when a car is about to strike you, the ladder is about to fall or someone is waving a gun in your face. You want and need that part of your consciousness to dominate, when any hesitation might kill you. But not when you’re sitting in the board room or on the throne in the bathroom. Servants don’t dominate the master but instead follow the masters bidding. BTW, please don’t get hung up on the word “control” because it’s not about control of the ego as much as understanding, awareness and perspective of the ego and your consciousness.

The next step in understanding your consciousness (once you understand the separation of “you” and your ego) is to understand that, contrary to conventional wisdom, there is no clear division of the conscious mind separated from the unconscious mind, with the ego mixed into the mess. Instead, understand that there is only a totality called consciousness (including the collective consciousness, which will be discussed in the next article) and the ego is constraining your view of your own total consciousness in the same way a massively large but completely dark warehouse might appear to you if all you have is a small flashlight which only illuminates a very small area. Now consider that your ego, which is usually controlling the direction and intensity of the flashlight, is a hyper alert, very frightened and extremely strong child wandering through the pitch black vastness completely alone.

Clearly the child is not in the mood to explore and understand. In fact, the child will deliberately ignore anything that could possibly be threatening, frightening or even confusing. You will be blind to many things because your ego will simply not illuminate it for you. Even if the ego recedes into the background, it still very effectively filters “reality” or “truth” if you’re not aware of the ego and its methods. You can’t see what you don’t know about or what you’re not aware of. (This reminds me of that wonderfully obtuse but factually correct statement by Donald Rumsfeld. “You have your known knowns, your known unknowns and your unknown unknowns.”) Your ego is a crisis manager and is always on high alert and not rational or logical under any circumstances. In fact, the term “rational or logical ego” is the ultimate oxymoron.

The ego’s fight or flight survival instincts, when allowed to be the dominate emotion, is not very well suited to exploration and understanding of the darkened area of your consciousness, which requires curiosity, insight, reflection, sensitivity, etc. However, the ego is very well adapted to deal with crisis, hunger, severe physical stress and so on, making the ego an excellent crisis manager. The ego, which is always on high alert though not always dominate, will “see” things such as scary shapes or movement and “hear” noises that for the most part will be a complete fabrication. Now switch on the overhead flood lights, illuminating the entire warehouse, and suddenly all those previously frightening shapes and sounds turn out to be easily recognizable familiar objects. While I don’t know how to (fully) turn on my mental flood lights, I’m absolutely convinced that if we were able to switch the lights on, we would laugh heartily at our own foolishness and insanity, for it would all make sense once we could see the big picture. We’ve all seen those picture grabs that are nearly impossible to decipher (like a circle with rods radiating outward) until we pull back to see the entire perspective (a Ferris or bicycle wheel) and suddenly it all makes sense.

While I’m a long way from this level of awareness, significant progress can still be realized if I understand that I’m no longer compelled to allow my ego to dominate and distort everything all the time. Just as important, knowing the past is littered with distortions and lies perpetrated by the ego, I must begin the process of re-examination and reflection. In addition, once I understand what the ego is and its role in my existence, I can more easily see through the ego’s distortion and subterfuge. While my ego still throws the occasional temper tantrum in the middle of the supermarket, I’ve learned to recognize the warning signs and not take it personally, pun intended. Even if I’m unable to stop the ego tantrum, I can still quickly escort my ego outside and lock it in the car. Understanding the circumstances that color my perception will go a long way towards dealing with it. The scary monster creeping up behind me is very often my ego.

In truly dysfunctional individuals, where the ego is extremely dominate and in constant tension with the conscious mind, I suspect the ego deliberately sabotages the individual to create crisis after crisis in order to “feel” needed and useful. While the ego might be an excellent crisis manager, once we recognize that the ego sees the world from an extremely narrow point of view, we shouldn’t ever expect the ego to act like a mature adult, applying reason and insight to lessons learned in order to modify future behavior. The ego is the one tiger that will never change its stripes. This might explain why some people seem to be extremely self destructive yet when carefully questioned, report that they’re completely clueless about their behavior.

Understanding the ego and its effect on human behavior helps explain, or at least helps one understand, all kinds of bizarre human behavior. Remember, the ego doesn’t make moral judgments as we understand “moral” to be (right or wrong, just or unjust, good or bad) but simply “sees” the world from its own narrow point of view, that of harm or no harm to itself or to the entire consciousness that it’s a part of. Actually, the ego sees itself as a separate and distinct entity rather than a part of the bigger whole. The ego sees itself as THE captain of the ship and everything else as passengers and cargo that the ego is responsible for. Thus, the ego sees itself as besieged on all sides by danger and oppression, under constant assault and in continuous survival mode. Psychopathic or sociopathic behavior is more understandable when seen through the eyes of the controlling ego. If the ego has completely taken over the conscious being and is continuously and permanently in control, from the point of view of the ego, it’s constantly fighting for its very existence and anything goes. The insanity of the psychopath/sociopath makes perfect sense when you understand that the ego is permanently in the psychopath’s drivers seat.

Circling back to the concept of a lightly held worldview, I’m not actually abandoning everything I know and believe each time I let go. Instead I’m simply changing my perspective. Each time I come face to face with a fact or idea that I might have previously rejected as impossible or unbelievable, instead of meeting it with “no” and rejecting it outright, I can first try “why not”. It requires letting go of my defensive position, my ego, my fight or flight crisis management reflex and trusting that I can emotionally and mentally withstand a shock to my belief system, that the new information is valuable to me rather than threatening. The thing is, once I let go, there is no shock to the system because there’s nothing there to resist. If you don’t “own” your belief system, there is nothing to lose when it must be released for reconditioning. It can be difficult at times to leave the old conditioning behind and it shows when I write “I believe” because those words implies ownership of a belief system. Habits are obvious indications of conditioning.

Think about that old joke, how it’s not the fall that kills you but the sudden stop. By removing the need to withstand assaults to your rigid belief system (because it’s light and flexible and easily released) there’s no sudden stop. It’s as if you’re a screen door, barely affected by the gust of wind passing through. It’s really remarkable how many doors you suddenly find open once you stop pounding on the closed door in front of you and look around. By letting go of the desperate urge (created by the ego) to control or restrict the information flow, suddenly we recognize that no idea or concept can harm us (manifested as fear and anxiety) unless we oppose it. It’s never a question of being able to learn new things; the problem lay with letting go of the old stuff.

This is why children are more easily trained and so impressionable. They’re an open book, with very little old baggage to overcome and plenty of open space to be filled. Worse (and this realization has brought me to tears a few times) we, you and I, our society, are teaching our own children’s ego to be dominate and to control, to lie and to cheat. Because the ego has no mechanism to distinguish between right and wrong, while the higher consciousness might better understand the difference between a “white” lie and full blown deceit, the ego simply sees this incoming information as tools to be used, usually against the consciousness and its human host, your son or daughter.

I’ll never forget the day a few decades back when I was trying to explain to my 4 year old son (to answer his question) the difference between a small lie and a big lie. My son was completely bewildered and I could see it in his eyes. I realized then and there that I was creating my very own Frankenstein’s monster. I was teaching my son how to rationalize and justify and game the system, to accept the conditioning, to be part of the hive mentality. And even when I fought against this insanity, society was more than willing to pick up the slack. While we’re training our child about hot stoves and thin ice, we’re also teaching the ego how to lie, cheat and deceive. As we are (in) forming the child’s consciousness, we are (in) forming the ego. This is a difficult rabbit hole to go down, to recognize that you’re harming your child, but it does deserve serious thought.

Well meaning people have tried to assure me that I was just doing what I thought was best to reinforce and validate their denial (no I wasn’t, I recognized what I was doing but I was too weak, lazy and conditioned to fight my own conditioning all the time) or that if I didn’t teach my child, he would not have been as well adjusted as he obviously was (being well adjusted to a sick and insane society is not a good thing) but I’ve made peace with myself on this matter. Just realize that anyone travelling down this road must deal with this speed bump eventually. However, with regard to learning about yourself and your consciousness, you can be a wide eyed and fearless little child again; open to new ideas and concepts, resilient and adaptable, a dry sponge waiting to be filled with water. It’s a matter of willingness, not ability or intelligence. In fact initially, when you’re first learning this process, thinking often gets in the way because the conditioned egocentric intellectual process is the old rut you’re stuck in and something to be avoided. You don’t want to push yourself into the same rut you’re pushing yourself out of.

I often think of life and our perception of reality as a jigsaw puzzle. There are countless puzzle pieces in front of us and from the moment we’re born (I suggest it starts before birth) we begin assembling the pieces into a coherent picture. While most of the more complex puzzle construction takes place during the training and conditioning phase we call our education, our basic concepts and beliefs are cemented into place by 5 or 6 years of age. Think of the children as Zombies in training. We are conditioned, well before the officially structured conditioning ever begins, to believe that the world (reality) is finite, quantifiable and static. Obviously the consensus view of how the pieces fit together is predetermined by society long before you’re born and very often the pieces don’t fit together very well. Because we trust those around us to know better, we simply accept what we’re told, that the ill fitting pieces are natural and to be expected. As we grow older and develop more independence, while we can clearly see there are pieces left over even when our education is done, we’re assured by society that these pieces are inconsequential, not needed, unimportant and immaterial. And quite frankly, society tends to ostracize those who ask difficult and uncomfortable questions. So as we navigate our lives, when outlier or incompatible information pushes to the top of the froth, we follow our conditioning and compare these stray and orphan pieces against our ever changing list of socially acceptable facts. The vast majority of the time we simply discard them when they don’t fit our view or that of society.

Let’s look at this a little closer. How many times over the past 12 months have you been reading a book, newspaper, magazine, trolling the Internet, listening to a news program, whatever, when something leaps to the center of your attention and immediately prompts a “What the hell” response. Here’s a stray puzzle piece that for whatever reason has been thrust into view. It doesn’t fit anywhere in your personal puzzle but there it is, commanding your attention and demanding resolution. But this piece is “out there” and for some reason you may feel a little uncomfortable, fearful, angry even. While it’s just one little piece of the puzzle, it feels threatening to you. How dare this puzzle piece jump out in front of you and disturb your peaceful day. Or maybe not, maybe you have no feeling either way. But still it doesn’t fit. So what do you do? Do you spend the next 3 hours re-examining your belief system or this puzzle piece in an honest attempt to understand the outlier. Of course you don’t, because the piece doesn’t fit. Out it goes, usually never to be seen again.

I cannot overemphasize how powerful the impulse is for the conditioned person (again, the Zombie) to stay within societies boundaries and discard the outlier puzzle pieces. Interestingly, the type of information (how contrary it is to the consensus opinion of society) is not always the sole or even principal determination used by the person when deciding what to do with it. The credibility of the purveyor of this information is often more important. For example, if the source of the information is suspect, the piece can be (more) easily discarded. However, if the source is extremely credible, the conditioned person faces a crisis of confidence. While they trust the source, the information is very disturbing. The ego sees this emotional stress and conflict as a crisis and struggles mightily to compel the person, through fear and anxiety, to reject the puzzle piece and return to emotional stability. If the person rejects the information, the ego will turn down (but never off) the fear and anxiety.

Even the credibility of the information itself is sometimes immaterial. The person often doesn’t even want to look at it very closely because doing so will simply make the crisis more difficult to deal with. It’s not the information that’s threatening as much as the person’s view of how that information will affect their position in society. If society is telling them that anyone who accepts this information will be rejected or ostracized, the information is downright dangerous to the person. The deeper the conditioning and the more the person has surrendered his identity to society and its conditioning, the deeper the crisis will be. This is the reason why so many people go through life with closed minds, seemingly certain they know precisely what’s right and wrong. In many ways, these people are protecting themselves from emotional crisis, though they would never admit that to themselves or to others because this insight is emotionally threatening. The dog is chasing its tail in a positive feedback loop.

If the leaders of a society wish to manipulate the population (duh) this explains why the leaders (we’re not just talking politicians here) would lie to their citizens, something I’ve repeatedly talked about on ZH. If the person (the conditioned mind) in crisis is confronted with information they desperately wish to reject, but the information or source is extremely credible, the person needs emotional help to discard the information. The ego is pounding on the person in the form of fear and anxiety to drop this hot potato, to resolve the crisis. The person is desperate for emotional cover to relieve their suffering. If they reject the information in order to stop the emotional pain and be accepted in the eyes of society (which is extremely important to the conditioned person) then they must personally reject the information and the source.

But they know deep down (though not always consciously) that they should at least look at the information more closely and quite possibly embrace it. This is what’s causing the crisis, the knowledge that it could be true. The conditioned mind always knows what the “truth” is and this exerts (additional) pressure on the conditioned mind, even if the conditioned mind is not aware of it. The person needs to receive permission to do what they want to do, which is to reject the information in a manner that allows them to relieve the emotional pain (denial will help them feel better about themselves) and still assure them of society’s acceptance. In other words, in this case they wish to reject the info in a personally and socially acceptable manner.

By the way, it doesn’t matter if “society” is not aware of this person’s crisis. It’s all about how the person see’s himself in relation to society. I will stress again that we’re talking about the conditioned mind here, the so called Zombie. People will reject information while alone at home just as quickly as they would in a public setting. To even be in possession (intellectually or physically, it doesn’t matter) of the information is often very threatening. I’m reminded of the Japanese person talking on the outdoor payphone and bowing while talking. In the person’s mind and manner (meaning in the consciousness) the other person is physically there. This is an important dynamic to understand and it helps explain the “phantom limb syndrome” many amputee’s experience. Experiments have shown that when you see a movie of someone lifting their arm, the part of your brain that controls your own arm lights up in the same manner as it does when you actually lift your own arm. The actual electrical impulses that would move the arm are blocked by another part of the brain (I think it’s your consciousness that blocks it) which apparently knows the difference between pictures and “reality”. But your brain doesn’t perceive any difference between the picture and the real thing. I guess this also explains the multibillion dollar pornography business, doesn’t it? :>) Perception is reality, at least to your brain.

When the politician (as the social leader) lies to the conditioned person (a social animal) about the information, the politician has in effect just given the conditioned mind the good housekeeping stamp of approval to do the same. Accepting the lie is good and acceptable to society because Daddy (society’s leader) says so. We’re talking about infantile responses here when examining the conditioned mind. The political leader, the “official” head of the society, has just told the person exactly what they want to hear. Daddy said it’s not true, the source is mistaken, crazy even, ignore that man behind the curtain, Daddy’s the great and mighty OZ. The conditioned mind can now safely reject the information and remain in good graces in society. Since society is willing to accept the lie, the person can do so as well. In effect, it isn’t a lie anymore because society (by way of society’s leaders) says it isn’t a lie. To the person reading this description of the dynamics of this personal and public subterfuge, it sounds incredible, unbelievable even. Yet this insanity goes on all the time, often in very subtle ways. You and I do this but since our ego won’t let us see ourselves clearly, deliberately obscuring our own self deceit and then papering it over with denial (and then denying the denial) we often remain convinced that others may do this but we don’t. But of course we do.

Let me also assure you that these dynamics are thoroughly understood and utilized by private parties (corporate advertising, sales organizations, etc) and government entities. Consider the entire alphabet soup of overt and covert government agencies here, including more and more private contractors doing the dirty work for the government these days. What exactly do you think is going on when you hear the term “psychological operations” and who do you think those “psyops” are being directed towards? Do you remember those mind control “experiments” conducted by the US government in the 50’s and 60’s, which were piggybacking on the work done by the Nazi doctors? (But let’s not go there, that’s on society’s no-no list.) The key for those who wish to manipulate and control the population is to maintain and extend the conditioning of society. I’ll give you one guess what the principal tool is and how this is accomplished. I’ll even give you a hint; the word contains the letters “T” and “V”. I’ll cover this more thoroughly in part 2 when I talk about control mechanisms.

The puzzle piece itself may be perfectly formed and acceptable in another time or place, or with another person, easily taken in and absorbed. But for this conditioned person, here and now, and for whatever reason, it’s discarded. Why? If you wish to overcome your conditioning, what’s wrong with simply seeing it as a stray puzzle piece that doesn’t yet have a home in your worldview or belief system? Rather than trashing it, you can place it back on the table for future reference. It really is that simple once you recognize that you’re creating the problem here, not the puzzle piece. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been able to pick up puzzle pieces months or years later that finally seem to fit, greatly contributing to my personal growth. I’m certain if I’d trashed them, it’s very likely they’d never be available again. This is because the more pieces I discard the deeper I surrender myself to societies conditioning. Each time we discard something, we must force ourselves deeper and deeper into denial in order to live with ourselves. The damage is cumulative and creates a growing dysfunction and neurosis. We must first deny it ever happened and them we must deny we ever denied it ever happened. This level of mental and emotional deceit can back up and needs to be cleared out occasionally or serious psychosis will develop. What happens when the toilet becomes jammed and won’t flush away life’s waste? A crisis is what happens.

As individuals and as a society, we’re growing more emotionally unstable each day. Witness the dramatic increase in school and work shootings & suicides over the past 30 years, to name just one example. Haven’t you ever wondered where this insanity is coming from? Doesn’t a little siren go off in the back of your head every time someone goes “postal”? Our insanity is increasing, which explains a population growing more obese, more dependent on drugs and distraction to make it through each day. It stands to reason then that the most disturbing puzzle pieces, and thus those most likely to be rejected by the conditioned mind, are those that pertain to society itself. To recognize that society’s leaders not only lie to us but may be trying to harm us (something that is obvious to the less condition mind) is nearly unthinkable. Similarly, recognizing that your spouse is sexually abusing your children or your father is molesting the neighborhood children is also extremely difficult to accept. To the conditioned mind, it is literally unimaginable. The ego will throw up a nearly impenetrable barrier to shield the conditioned mind from this information. How many times have you left a bad relationship and said something like “I never saw it coming” or “How could I have been so blind”? Your ego shielded you from the (coming) emotional trauma by blinding you to reality. Everyone else knew for months your spouse was cheating on you. Why didn’t you?

Sadly, this tendency is conditioned into us from birth and builds upon itself in an out-of-control positive feedback loop that acts as a control mechanism. While some might claim this is natural or just human nature to do so, I think just the opposite. I believe that the control mechanisms, the training and conditioning combined with social peer pressure and its positive feedback loop has been so completely assimilated into our very fabric and perception that it has become indistinguishable from reality, thus it is reality and by extension normal or natural. Perception, when fully and unquestionably accepted, is reality. In every sense of the word, we create our own realty on the fly, in real time, simply by the decisions we do or don’t make, the beliefs we maintain, which in turn are filtered by our rigid worldview, which is then reinforced by society and promoted by what I call “bad actors”.

Our rigid worldview is reinforced and encouraged by everything we interact with on a daily basis, enabling us to grow mentally lazy and intellectually stagnant. We’re assured by science that our material world is measurable, quantifiable, consistent and stable. We’ve been assured that most of the secrets of the universe have been teased out and independently confirmed, that matter and energy follow iron clad rules of physics and the few small inconsistencies will soon be worked out, as soon as that fancy new CERN collider in Geneva is fired up and working at full power. So how do we deal with some genuinely strange (scientific) puzzle pieces that are only now becoming widely accepted and that seem to be directly related to consciousness?

For instance, a scientific experiment confirmed that subatomic particles can instantly “communicate” across vast distances. In other words, “communicate” faster than the speed of light. This flies in the face of everything we think we know and breaks every rule we’ve been taught. Or my personal favorite, the now established fact that by simply observing something, we affect it. Matter can’t be accurately measured because it’s changed simply by being observed. When we “observe” something, what we’re really doing is directing our consciousness towards it, bringing the observed into of sphere of awareness. So does this mean our consciousness is a form of energy that can influence or even change other forms of energy (matter is energy in a different form or energy state) thus bringing full circle my constant refrain that perception is reality? If our consciousness is energy, then can it be destroyed (energy and matter are never destroyed, only changed in form or frequency) can it “die” when the human body dies? Clearly this information warrants careful study with an unbiased eye. Or do we just chuck these outliers out the window and sleep better now that we’ve maintained our rigid worldview? Is this a science, physics or consciousness puzzle piece? The rabbit hole really is bottomless when you get up a head of steam.

As much as I would love to believe that there’s a magic pill or a dynamic leader or a puzzle piece of information that would change all of this if only my neighbor would swallow it, vote for it or read it, the inescapable conclusion is that there’s no magic cure in the wings, waiting to be applied to fix what is broken. However, the unraveling has only just begun and I actually possess what I consider to be a realistic expectation that this mess will not completely implode into a seething roiling fireball of destruction. How does it end? I don’t really know but I will hazard a guess sometime down the line. If we’re honest about this, we all want our baubles and trinkets and a good paying job as well. We want everything to change and nothing to change. We want our cake and we want to eat it too.

So where does this leave us? Well, depending upon your point of view, either you’ve just wasted a chuck of your time reading this or your perspective is a little bit broader than it was earlier. As I stated at the beginning, if we’re ever going to understand why we’re frozen in place while our country is carted off piece by piece, we need to throw conventional wisdom out the door and look for alternative explanations. Every time I devote some time examining this question, I find myself falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. One link leads to another which leads to another which leads to another. But I do have some ideas I’d like to share with you next time.

How do you disempower a corrupt system? By empowering yourself.How do you awaken a sleeping population? By awakening yourself.How do you heal a toxic society? By healing yourself.Neil Kramer

I wish to address one housekeeping item. There have been requests for me to include web links in my articles and I’ve made a deliberate and conscious decision not to. If you think about it for a moment, bibliographies, footnotes and web links are all intended to validate and legitimize the writer. All of the ideas and concepts I’ve discussed in this article can easily be found and I urge you to do so. Just be prepared to be snowed under. But I resist leaving a trail of bread crumbs for a number of reasons, one of which is primary and explained below.

There is no doubt in my mind that my biggest and most exciting discoveries and insights came from unexpected clicks of the mouse. More than a few times I’d start an evening of research with a specific subject in mind. But after a few clicks of the mouse, I’d quickly find myself deep in the weeds and far off the beaten path. I would rarely make it back to my original destination and that was just fine with me. If the reader really is interested in exploring further, the journey must be entirely yours and yours alone. I’ve found that when venturing off the beaten path (and I assure you the answers are way off the consensus reality path) it’s best if you find your own way.

My hope is that whatever you learn be yours, from your own hand, your own research, irrefutable in your mind and thus immensely valuable and indispensible to you. The purpose of the journey is not the destination but the journey itself. Each trip is unique and your experience is a product of the path you take. I’ve studied the Masters long enough to see the wisdom in their methods so I’ll simply repeat what they teach. I’ll point you in the right direction but the rest is up to you.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this exploration, coming to a theater near you.

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